Brighter futures

An investment in democracy building and civil society creation

Uzbeks take education seriously, with many vying for master’s and doctorate degrees. For many students, both inside the capital and also in the regions, studying the English language is a step in this goal to attain advanced degrees in the United States and Europe. Before, learning outside Uzbekistan was reserved for elites, but now that many universities are offering English language courses, Uzbek students from all economic backgrounds desire to study abroad in English-speaking countries. One advantage of the desire to learn English for Western countries is that by learning English, Uzbek students will have the opportunity to study in Western countries, later returning to Uzbekistan and bringing with them Western ideas. This will further the development of their country and continue to achieve more “open” policies.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and until the early 2000s, the Uzbek government funded Uzbek students’ bachelor and master’s education in foreign countries (like the United States) through a program called “Umid.” Upon completion of this program, graduates were required to return to Uzbekistan, and most would work for the government. This program allowed for Western trained students to have an impact on the policies and procedures of the Uzbek government. Unfortunately, this program ended when relations with the West began to dissolve in the early 2000s.
Today, Uzbekistan has a scholarship for master’s students through the Karimov Foundation. Upon completion, students are also required to return to Uzbekistan, but there is no requirement to work for the government. While some students have begun to work for the government, there is not enough data or personal testimonies to understand the impacts. However, any Western educated Uzbek would undoubtedly bring back some ideas to the country to help further its democracy-building endeavors.
Challenges

Even as programs like Fulbright are adding more English teaching positions, there still remains a lack of qualified English-speaking instructors in the country. In university programs, it is rare to find a native English speaker, which lowers the quality of the English language being taught to students. In addition, many universities lack physical textbooks for students and instructors. By providing these materials, English language acquisition can be improved. If the United States and Europe want to increase their influence in the region, including Uzbekistan, the most effective way to do so is through English language courses and by providing the materials to teach the language.

Western democracies should continue to support English language development in Uzbekistan, not only because of the desire of young students, but also because it is an opportunity to advance Western ideas into a society influenced heavily by Russia and China. By offering more English courses, the ability to see real change and greater appreciation for the West and its ideals will be achieved.
Foreign relations

Foreign languages have a natural “soft power” element to them, and former president Islam Karimov tried to mitigate this issue. Under his rule, Uzbekistan remained isolated from foreign powers trying to influence domestic policies and relations. English language learning centers were sparse in the capital and non-existent in the regions.

However, Russia was always in the background, as it considered the Central Asian states still within its sphere of influence. As a result, Russian schools and Russian-language centers were present throughout the country. In the early 2000s, as the United States began to play a more significant role in the region due to the war in Afghanistan, more Uzbeks began to learn English. Although, in 2005, the relationship between the U.S. and Uzbekistan reached a low point, due to the Uzbek state sanctioned violence in Andijan. During this period, there was a resurgence of bilateral relations between Moscow and Tashkent, and the Russian language grew in importance within the country.
However, when President Karimov died in 2016 and his reformed-minded replacement, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, came to power, the dynamics within the country changed again. President Mirziyoyev has sought to balance between the soft-power politics of Russia, the United States, and even recently, China. As all three of these nations vie for influence in the region, their influence on language, schools, and education policies within Uzbekistan will also continue to grow. With its Belt and Road Initiative, China has also tried to convince young Uzbeks of the importance of the Chinese language. While China does have a few language centers and a Confucius Institute in Tashkent, in the regions, the Chinese language has not taken hold. A majority of Uzbeks do not have a desire to learn any dialect of the Chinese language, and even in most universities it is not an option.
On the contrary, the United States and Great Britain have had much more luck advancing their interests through the English language. This is evident in the education policy of Uzbekistan. Starting from the lowest levels of school, young Uzbeks are now taught the English language and many universities in the capital teach in the English language or have significant English-language departments. Both nations also have learning centers throughout the country and offer free English discussions at their embassies.
While Russian will almost certainly be the lingua franca in the business sphere for years to come, the United States and European nations can significantly impact education and democratic reforms through their English-language “soft power.” As of now, the English language is seemingly winning in this struggle for power, especially as the younger generations view the English language as a way to advance their own goals and futures. Although, as demonstrated in the past, things are quick to change in Uzbekistan, so only time will be able to tell which language the Uzbek people will use in their daily lives, businesses, and future endeavors.
English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, which has had an official status as a first or second language in more than seventy countries. There exist several factors that influence the maintenance of English as a global language [1]. If we look back on world history, it becomes obvious that the British Empire was the most powerful country which expanded its lands by colonizing the great states like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, several countries in Africa and without doubt the new land America.
The process of colonization brought not only its economical and political systems, but also gave rise to the merge of local language, culture and traditions with those of British. If Britain was the stimuli of English in the past, the present motivation and a large-scale need for use of English derives from the political and economical power of the United States. The big influence the US has on international trade causes English to become the most demanded and used language. The next factor of English extension throughout the globe can be explained by American popular culture
English comes into people’s homes via songs of Eminem, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson; it creeps into people’s way of life via Hollywood films like Titanic, Avatar and Matrix. Furthermore, the factor of the Internet is no less significant than the aforementioned. We should mention the fact that about seventy per cent of the information on the Internet is in English. This in turn triggered the creation of a new Internet language which is distinguished by its contractive character
For many years, English has preserved its position as a global lingua franca and factors mentioned above have played a great role in the origination of diverse varieties of English.Some examples include British English, American English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English, Philippine English and many more others. They may vary in terms of grammar (Past Simple is used instead of Present Perfect in American English), vocabulary (they say dinkumin Australia when they mean “true”), phonology ([i] sound is longer in the pronunciation been in Canada [bi:n] compared to [bin] in British English).
These varieties have appeared and are still spoken as a dialect in those countries since English has or has had a direct impact on them. However, the countries that do not grant any official estimation to the language learn English as a foreign language.
According to the Open University, about 700 million people speak English as a foreign language . Uzbekistan is among the states that regard and learn it as a foreign language. Although Uzbek people do not apply English as free and fluently as Indians do, we can observe them used when calling news notions related to food, computers, telecommunication and the Internet. However, the words are usually mispronounced as a result of the lack of direct contact with the English language. For instance, Paynet– the service that transfers money into people’s phone accounts – is pronounced wrongly as many , but the right way to say it is [peinet]. It is used so widely that speakers of EFL pronounce it as generally accepted by the public. The Call me message is read as [kel mi]. Nevertheless, the right pronunciation of the word combination is ko:l mi]. This is prompted by the people’s assumption that in English a letter is pronounced as [ei] in all the words since everybody remembers Basic English words they learnt at school, apple, cat. As a consequence, people attempt to pronounce the a sound in the way they were taught during their younger ages. When people are called by an unknown number, they read the word in the way Uzbek words are pronounced [unknown]. This is usually very noticeable in the speech of the elderly as more and more youth are aware of such words and readings to a certain degree. Furthermore, Russian version of pronunciation of the abbreviation USB [yuzbi] is kept in Uzbek, which actually must be read as other abbreviations in English. We can observe the influence of Uzbek pronunciation on the food name KFC. People say it [kepsi] instead of separate reading. It is the result of consonant change: [f] is pronounced as
[p] in most cases (falokat – palakat). Other examples include: imo [imo], BMW [bi emve], UMS [yumees]. The proper way to say those words in Standard English is [aimo], [bi em double ju] and [juemes]. Although the term Uzlish is not yet coined and included into internationally popular dictionaries, many scholars engaged in English learning and teaching tend to use it to mean the variant of Uzbek based on English. However, the English words are currently restricted to the names of only brands and technological advancement terms.
The spread of English in Uzbekistan greatly differs from that of Russian, back at the beginning of XXth century, being marked mostly as a desirable rather than suppressive process (Hasanova 2007 a, c). Uzbek people realize that English is significant in all regards when it comes to pursuing international education, attaining a good career and keeping up with the rapid pace of world changes. They greatly favour the English language, seeing it as the key to successful and prosperous life. Language specialist Rod Bolitho marks such strong interest in the language by two factors: the intention of studying and working abroad and idealisation of The UK and US. These two reasons, in his opinion, are the strongest motivations for the Uzbek to learn it. Hasanova (2007b) attributes the continuously increasing interest in the country in learning English to the international significance of the language.
Even though Hasanova (2007a) mentioned the scarcity of sources informing the language situation in the country, there are language specialists who have discussed this topic, sharing their empiric observations and experiences. West (2013) characterises English in Uzbekistan as a subject language, mostly acquired through educational training. Bolitho predicts that English can totally supplant Russian in several decades. Duff and Dickens (2005) in their work drew attention to English teaching and the language level in rural areas in opposition to urban parts of the country. Snow, Kamhi-Stein and Brinton (2006) looked into teacher preparation experiences in the country, illustrating a unique English-medium program preparing English language teachers –IELTE (Institute of English Language Teacher Education).
The English language owns the status of foreign language in Uzbekistan (West & Sheykhametova, 2016). However, the government wants to see the language become a second language, fluently used by society, especially the younger generation. This intention of the government can easily be observed in the decree of the president (see appendix), where the role of English is highly emphasized and both education and media are called for reformation and upgrading to serve the pervasiveness of English in the country. A number of language specialists (Dearden, 2014; West, 2013) highlight the importance of the presidential decree in the increase of attention to the English language in educational establishments, which is occurring in all stages of education.